Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Max Scherzer jokes with a teammate while posing for a photographer during the team’s baseball spring training photo day in spring training. Scherzer insists that his “pride” is his heterochromia iridium (two different colored eyes), not his arm, as was the clue for Tuesday’s USA Today crossword puzzle.
GENE J. PUSKAR — The Associated Press

DETROIT >> There are different levels of fame. There’s being a first-round draft pick. There’s being a 20-game winner, and being a Cy Young winner. Then, there’s being immortalized in clue form, as part of a crossword puzzle.

When Max Scherzer arrived at Comerica Park on Tuesday, bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer let him know that he’d reached that last level of immortality.

“Mick, as soon as I got here said, ‘You made it!’ You’re Seven Down! I was like, ‘What do you mean I’m Seven Down?’” Scherzer said Tuesday afternoon.

The subject enjoyed it enough to tweet out a picture of the puzzle, along with his interpretation of what the answer should be.

“That was pretty cool to see. Not too many times are you in a crossword puzzle,” Scherzer said. “I thought I’d give my opinion on what the answer should be.”

The correct answer is ‘arm.’

Scherzer’s answer? ‘DIC’

For reference, that’s a nod toward his split eye color, with one blue eye and one brown eye, better known as heterochromia iridium.

“When you go get your driver’s license, as painfully slow as the DMV is, it can be a tortuous experience trying to figure out, you need a three-letter abbreviation for your eye color. So I thought they were going to put BL-BR on my license and they had to go look up in a book for the eye color. My color is dichro so the three-letter abbreviation is DIC,” Scherzer explained.

“That’s what I was saying. If they did their homework, they would have known.”